UK Press Card Authority

Categories

US says ‘We’re sorry’ to Afgans for civilian deaths

BBC News: Over 4000 media items including photos and videos were obtained by the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, which show soldiers in the US Army in graphic and ‘repugnant’ actions upon Afghancivilians. The US military has since apologized and says that the actions were those of a ‘rogue’ unit in 2010 and investigations are under way.

The photos were recently published by Germany‘s Der Spiegel magazine and are said to be some of the many that were taken by US Army investigators. They depict US soldiers grinning over the bodies of Afghan civilians they appear to have killed. Other photos show soldiers kneeling over a body and holding the face of the dead man to the camera by using his hair and turning his head.

In 2010, around 3000 civilians were killed in the conflict. The UN says that the Taliban were responsible for around 75% of the deaths and coalition forces the remaining 30%.